Quasius Construction Breaks Ground on Sheboygan Paper Box Expansion

SHEBOYGAN - Sheboygan Paper Box Company broke ground Wednesday on an expansion that is expected to create 30 to 35 jobs in the community.

The 28,000-square-foot expansion to the family-owned box manufacture plant at 716 Clara Avenue will consist of a new receiving area, warehouse and manufacturing space. Company officials said they expect to add 30 to 35 jobs in the next three years.

"Heading into our 94th year, we are fortunate to have such a dedicated workforce. Without their skills and can-do attitude, none of what we accomplish as a company would be possible," Thomas Liebl, company president, said.

The expansion comes as the 93-year-old business has seen a spike in demand for its folded-carton boxes and is an effort by the company to remain cutting-edge in its industry.

"This is absolutely amazing to have an almost 100-year-old firm growing in your own backyard," Dane Checolinski, director of Sheboygan County EDC, said. "One of the things everyone says about economic development is they are always looking to the next auto manufacturer to move to town or for the next office building or major employer that will move into our backyard and save it, but that's not the way it works. It's incremental growth, side by side with existing firms, to produce results."

The company had historically focused on producing gift packaging for main street retailers before the rise of big-box stores saw it move into industrial packaging for the electronics, auto parts, toy and publishing industries, according to its permit application filed with the city.

The privately held company, which is owned by the Liebl family, has operated at the same Clara Avenue property since the late 1920s. It currently has about 105,000 square feet of production space in its existing plant.

With the new construction, the plant will take up the entire city block between Seventh and Eighth streets, and Clara and Georgia avenues.